"Wars of the Roses Tour" Topic

If I were to travel across the Atlantic to visit Wars of the Roses sites, where (based on personal experience) would you recommend most?

City of York for sure — still has the full medieval walls and amazing buildings, etc.

Carlisle Castle, most seiged castle in the land, including WotR, quite a nice visit.

Towton battlefield and Bosworth field.

By no means an expert, but there is an overlap with English Civil War sites, so I have visited all of these sites. These would probably be my 'highlights' of things to 'see'. Yes there are some significant sites that *should* be on the list e.g. Mortimer's Cross and Shrewsbury, but there isn't really anything to see there concerning the WotR. These suggestions will give you the most bang for your buck.

* York for the walls, Castle Museum, Yorkshire Museum, the Shambles, Cathedral & Towton. Pretty much everything in York is just brilliant. My favourite UK city, and always has been. There was a Richard 3 'experience' in one of the wall towers, but I have a feeling it shut recently.
* Leeds – Royal Armouries, and just down the road Wakefield and Sandal Castle (also a small exhibit of WotR archaeological finds in Wakefield Museum)
* Bosworth visitor centre, and the 'new' Bosworth Field site
* Leicester for the R3 visitor centre and the cathedral
* London – Tower of London, Wallace Collection (Wallace Collection was a private collection of, well pretty much everything, but particularly armour. wallacecollection.org )
* Tewkesbury, well presented battlefield
* Stoke Field, handily placed in Foundry Miniatures back garden

There is a gazeteer of WotR sites, apologies can't remember the author. Saw it on Caliver site when I was trawling their book lists (so try them and OMM first).

Don't forget the Battlefields Trust link for their battlefield hub, and WotR memorials database.

If you itinerary involves lots of castles and museums, it might work out considerably cheaper buying English Heritage, National Trust or Art Pass membership for a year. Generally speaking, if you are visiting 5 or more site cared for by one of the organisations (either English Heritage, or the National Trust) then you'll start saving money.

The Art Card is slightly more eclectic. Arts UK give grants to restore/save/buy art in conjunction with sites across the country. Those sites in return give free or discounted entry to Art Pass holders – this includes a number of museums, English Heritage and NT sites, galleries, stately homes in private ownership.

Once you have your itinerary it'll be time to work out if any of the memberships might be of use, saving you money. They might not.

Tewkesbury – the town is lovely and the old Abbey.

Of course I forgot to give the following advice: if you have never visited the UK before, don't think of physical distances in US terms. 150 miles might be nothing in US terms, it's a good 3-4 hours of driving in the UK.

I often see the itineraries of US residents on here or LAF, you can't travel from London to York, see the sights, and then make it in time for evening meal in Edinburgh for example. We are a relatively crowded, small set of islands. Our motorways and mainline trains are great when they work, but getting to the main infrastructure can take almost as long as the time you spend speeding along our national infrastructure routes.

Our Grand Tour in the summer of '85 was a whirlwind of visits to as many historical sites as possible. Totally agree with KYPD's comments about York. 40 years ago it wasn't quite as congested as today. We were able to dash from Chester after breakfast to Taunton for the 300th anniversary reenactment of Sedgemoor and got back for supper to the astonishment of our table mates. The highlight for me was a twilight visit to Marston Moor.

Thank you all!

Merry Xmas

Keepyourpowderdry has summed it up well

If starting from London, you can work your way up North:

* Bosworth visitor centre, and the 'new' Bosworth Field site
* Leicester for the R3 visitor centre and the cathedral

York is an excellent base to visit Wakefield / Sandal Castle, the Leeds Armoury, the battlefield of Townton as well as all its own delights.

Tewesbury is recommended but is bit of an outlier from these two. There is a medieval festival there in July with re enactment of the battle.

If you have time, or are also going to Scotland, worth stopping in Northumbria to see the Percy strongholds in Alnwick and Bamburgh. Beautiful coast and plenty of castles including Berwick (intact Tudor fortifications).

Almost anywhere you go, you wont be too far from a castle, so defintely worth planning the itentary in advance.

East Coast railway line generally reliable and fast (London to Edinburgh via York), less so elsewhere

Driving is not a great experience on our motorways or cities but might be required to visit some of the sites